AirCell And American Airlines to Launch In-Flight Wi-Fi Service Over U.S.

AirCell and American Airlines have just announced that they will be testing broadband services beginning in 2008. The goal is to enable passengers to use their laptops, PDAs, iPhones and BlackBerrys, and portable gaming systems.

AirCell is the leader in global airborne communications and its products are found in many commercial airplanes. In 2006 AirCell won the FCC’s exclusive broadband frequency license which gives them a unque air-to-ground network, making in-flight high-speed broadband service is possible.

American Airlines is very excited about this possibility and says that its customers list broadband access as one of their top wishes for future flights.

2 Responses to AirCell And American Airlines to Launch In-Flight Wi-Fi Service Over U.S.

Ok sure, thats a neat idea… Finally allow 2.4GHz band communications on flights, since they have never been proven to cause any kind of interference with flight communications [which are not typically in the microwave band]. And now that consumers want it so badly, I’m sure they will be charged $10 USD per minute [or maybe by per KB] to go wireless… Anyone who lacks the ability to circumvent the toll based access points is gonna get wallet-raped.

Stinks of ‘wait until users will do anything to get out of the stone age, then charge them whatever we feel like it’ tactics to me.

I’ll just be sniffing all of the trade secrets and ‘must by from SkyMall NOW’ credit card information on the in-flight network.